Grants and Writing Resources for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette
The 2026 International Exhibition on Animals in Art, a juried show coordinated by the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, selected 57 works from 293 entries by artists in the U.S. and Canada. In October 2026 UL Lafayette reported that a visual arts major had taken Best in Show with "Swamp Rabbit," a sculpture built from steel, foam, clay, sheet metal, wire and spent shell casings.
Undergraduate Research and Creative Work
The Student Center for Research, Creativity, & Scholarship, part of Advance Student Research, hosts an annual Undergraduate Research Conference. Students can bring a finished project, part of one, or a proposal, and present it as an oral talk, a lightning talk, a poster or a creative performance.
The Advance Leaf Awards recognize undergraduate research in 17 categories, from humanities and social sciences to performing arts and community impact. A faculty or staff member nominates the student and the project mentor signs off. Most categories carry up to three awards. Arts majors in their junior or senior year can apply for the Dupré Library Arts Fellowship, which pays in two installments for an exhibition or performance that draws on the library's collections.
Journals Students Edit
The Creative Writing Program puts out the Southwestern Review once a year in print. It publishes fiction, nonfiction, drama, poetry and art by current UL students, and a faculty advisor edits it with graduate and undergraduate staff.
Rougarou is graduate-run. Founded in 2007, it comes out twice a year with creative writing and visual art from emerging and established artists, plus monthly columns. Any English graduate student can join the staff, and training happens in-house.
Graduate Fellowships and Prizes
The University Doctoral Fellowship carries a stipend of $22,000 for the academic year and waives tuition and most fees, for three or four years depending on whether the student enters with a master's degree. The Robert Elliot May Graduate Resident Tuition Fellowship gives new out-of-state and international graduate students the in-state tuition rate.
Smaller sums come from the Graduate Student Organization, which reimburses conference travel, research supplies and thesis or dissertation printing on a first-come, first-served basis. During Graduate Student Appreciation Week, the Graduate Student Research and Creative Works Showcase awards cash prizes for posters, papers and videos.
Writing Help and Thesis Guidelines
The English Department's Writing Lab in Dupré Library works with students, faculty and staff from every discipline. Sessions run 50 minutes or less and cover brainstorming, grammar, structure, formatting and statements of purpose. Walk-ins are welcome.
For graduate writers, the Graduate School's writing support page points to Manuscript Support Team consultations on formatting and the official guidelines for theses, dissertations and synthesis projects, along with LaTeX and title page templates. Advanced doctoral students with an approved topic can apply for the Dissertation Boot Camp, which offers distraction-free writing time and individual coaching from writing consultants. Each boot camp has room for up to 15 doctoral students.
Our editors give theses, dissertations and course papers a final pass for grammar, consistency and format before they go in. See our UL Lafayette dissertation and thesis editing and UL Lafayette essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.
From Our Writing Guides
Compiled by James Peterson Brown, PhD, Managing Editor of Editors For Students. Links checked October 2026.
Editors For Students is an independent editorial service and is not affiliated with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your UL Lafayette writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.